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Why do you play MMORPGS?
Snakes
Member Posts: 68
Hello everyone,
I've been a member of MMORPG.com but the thing is I never bothered to use the forums - why? Because I'm dumb? Haha. So for my first post I decided to opt to have this thread - now I didn't see it in the search but maybe I wasn't looking hard enough.The question is simply - Why do you play MMORPGS or simply MMOs in general?
Let me explain - this is very open ended and its bound to have a large amount of responses to it. I'm not choosing a specific game here, its just in general - why do you choose to play the MMOs that you play? What brings you back to them and what keeps your attention?
Like I said, there's hundreds of answers based on this - choose any game or just speak in general.
Here's a couple of examples. Some people play mmorpgs for the community, others for the pvp, others for other things. Personally a lot of the time I would go back to an MMORPG because I met a number of awesome people, and being an Role-player at heart, I loved anything based around Role-playing. To be something else for example but that wouldn't base everything on my gaming experience, of course content was very important to me to but it was the community that brought me back.
Please feel free to answer as you feel, but please - take this thread partial serious. No flaming, everyone is entitled to their own thoughts, opinions, and feelings - we are all individuals and we all have our own taste.
Thanks everybody - I'll be checking this thread regularly and even responding. 
Comments
I ask myself this question.
As todays MMOs move further and further away from what they originally were I find myself playing Single player Rpgs more and more.
I can tell you why I played Older games though or what originally got me into the genre.
I liked the large open ended worlds that gave me enough freedom to feel like I was playing a Fantasy/sci-fi life simulator.
A game that finally took me away from the D&D tabletops.
The tight knit communities that actually Played together where RP was the most important thing in Game other than bashing someones skull and stealing their loot or working together in massive raids killing enormous monsters.
But those days are gone my friend today I play Eve because in my mind it feels like the only game that truely is a Sci-fi life simulation.
Communities are what MMOs are about to me, not instances and queues. If a community doesn't play a role in my MMO it isnt one.
In short, Communities that effect the game world is the reason I started and try to continue playing MMOs.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
I would call you smart actually
My main answer considered taboo by many. PvP, sure I can get PvP in a FPS, it's just not the same though.
Exploration, something many developers have forgotten.
I don't feel like going to into much detail, plenty more reasons, how ever I hold these as most important when heading into an MMO.
Entertainment.
I played table top D&D and enjoyed a few MUDs so EQ offered a 3D virtual world where I could control my character manually, as it were. Over all MMORPGS are fun, have great immersion and its a social system that encourages cooperation as well as interdependency.
The Old Timers Guild
Laid back, not so serious, no drama.
All about the fun!
www.oldtimersguild.com
An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it. - Jef Mallett
For me its the open world I guess.While im one who plays solo a lot I still enjoy interaction with people. Single player game worlds seem small and lonely compared to MMO's.
For fun? Isn't that why we're all here
I find MMORPG's fun well because they let you escape your everyday life, i love being immersed into a whole new world where i can really do whatever i feel like. Playing with friends and having a good community is also a great part of why i think people love these games.
My motivations are pretty simple.
All my friends and family seem bizarrely enamoured of crap TV. It's a lonely life pottering around for a couple of hours a night while everyone else is glued to the gogglebox.
MMO's are the most enjoyable and cost-effective method I've found of passing this time. I can be "with" my friends and family (thanks to the wonders of wireless laptops) and still have something fun and engaging to do while they rot their brainzzz away with X-Factor and Coronation Street.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
I used to play for the community. Then it became community and exploration. Now that I can no longer find a community that fits me the exploration is rather boring when there's nobody to share it with so I pretty much stopped playing MMOs.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
Because playing with and against real people is a thousand times more intense than beating $LEVEL_BOSS_09 for the hundredth time.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
Living in a virtual world, making new friends with people from all over the world, and scratching out a living in an open harsh environment.
Darkfall Travelogues!
I like a open world with the game focused on the social side and the economy. The only game that really has done that for me is Star Wars Galaxies pre NGE.
Power over others.
MMORPGs offer many ways of owning randoms, in real life the same feeling gets old fast, its no fun owning someone who is not competing, or when the goals/rules are different, wich is often the case.
In MMORPGs I get people to test my superiority consciously.
Greetings all! Thanks for all the posts, but there's gotta be more people out there - the more responses the better.
I am pleased to read them all and there's a few things I would like to say regarding them.
@Greed0104:
Smart 'eh? Why would you say that? Not that I'm complaining haha.
@BuzWeaver & Gabby-air:
You speak true - entertainment is a key aspect for many and after all, since it is a game, why bother if it wasn't entertaining? I don't at all disagree. I was looking for a more specific answer, which you provided after all - total immersion.
@Ilvaldyr:
I get what you're saying there - wireless is heavenly haha. You say its cost effective, and I don't really disagree and I don't mind paying my $14.99/mn as a subscription cost for a good game. The games remain cost effective, if there is something good behind it - but then again there is always the free to play games out there which I can never argue with.
@Illius:
Community and Exploration? I see. But you've stopped playing - that's the crappy part of some MMOs, people take them too serious and obsess a little over getting the best gear or getting the next big raid group. Personally, I have nothing wrong with this and I don't disagree - a game is limited to each and individual. Is that what happened with your gaming? People weren't like minded and were focused on everything else but the community and exploration? Again - I'm not against how people play. That's the purpose of this thread, to share our thoughts. There is no right or wrong way to play.
By the way - I laughed pretty hard after I read your signature.
@Zeppelin4:
Ahh - another player who mourns the loss of SWG. I remember playing it, pre NGE (and CU) and then SOE claiming that the Combat Upgrade and New Game Enhancements will make the game more enjoyable, alas it failed - at least for me and many others, I mean the living proof is they had to shut down a number of servers due to the lack of players. Ahh well.
@Everyone who's posted thus far:
Thanks for the posts - I look forward to many others in the future. I will of course continue to check it and reply when I see it fit.
So far, it seems the common thing for many (out of the 13 posts (including my own) people look for the community and social aspects - but of course there is more people out there and more reasons to play ranging from PvP, Social, Dominance, Pleasure, and so on. Once again, I look forward to additional posts.
To be honest...I forgot.
Originally posted by Scagweed22
is it the graphics? the repetativenesses? i mean what is the point? you could be so much more productive in real life
Real life brings repetition and pointlessness too. The only thing real life offers is Great graphics. Its kinda expensive too and way to dependent on the cash shop. Totally pay to win as well. No thank you. Ill stick to my games.
MMORPG forums: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.
MMORPG forums: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.
** Chuckles **
Nice. Very Nice.
I play mmorpg's because :
1. I'm simply too lazy to keep going out once a month to pick up another stand-alone game;
2. The community and my friends from all parts of the world; It's kinda hard to meet up for drinks and catch up once a week if you live in Australia and they live in Kansas, or somewhere like that. Unless of course you all have way too much money and too much time, much like a certain lady who's named after a french city.
3. Content; It's always incredibly fun for me to see what some creative people are able to do with a few lines of code and turn something in a book or comic, or their imagination into virtual life.
4. Alternative; Like a previous poster, yeah, I'm a little sick and tired of the crap we get on tv these days. E.g. like I 'Really' need to know how jon and kate are doing in rl. Or some really dumb idiots go "yeah, like, uhmm..yeah", "really, like about tonight...", "like uh huh, ", "and then, they like, y'know.."; There's no need for waterboarding, just force the criminals to watch some of these "movies/series" and I swear they will tell you everything within 5 minutes.
5. Escapism; After a hard day/week at work, I will do just about anything to avoid thinking about work and mmorpg's are the most cost effective way to go.
Actually this is the case with many people, it took me awhile to think why i play this genre when i already have a ps3 too. I guess people don't really realize why they play them until they aren't able to for awhile and remember all the good moments and why they happened. The moment of truth!
I enjoy working on my character, guiding it through adventures and continuing that betterment as well as adventure taking.
With a game like Oblivon or Morrowind, there is only so much I can do before I'm standing there with my character in one window and scouring the mod list for something to continue the game for me. MMO's update and expand.
Also, I like the bustle of a living world. For the most part.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
MMORPG forums: You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.
Hey now.... I resemble that remark.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
Well back in the day, used to just be that I wanted to play games while interacting with others. Back when I started in UO and a slew of GameStorm titles.
Now...well I'm married so I tend to play just to tune my wife out.
Soon, well in 6 months we'll have our first child....so I dunno if I'll play much at all, at least P2P MMOs. Unless someone subs every time I give out 21-day Eve invites.
These days, I wonder why I bother....
Initially, I was working a job that had really odd shifts and left me lots of free time when everyone I knew in RL was working, sleeping, going to school etc. Online gaming was a great way to have fun and kill time. Community and new online friends were what kept me playing for the most part....
Now, realizing that I have had more significant conversations with people on these forums (even if it was flaming) than I have had with anyone in an MMORPG in the last 2 years plus, I wonder why I haven't given up entirely. I do spend more time than ever playing single player, offline games because without the community why put up wth the nonsense from MMO companies?
i play them for the experince of the game wether its the combat system or its got a great story and its like alright im this or that playing in this world over conflict of land or power and i get to kill some animals and well i liked that alot that feeling of being truly connected as though all around lost in time was gone no more fights or whatever succumbs of me not playing a game like this i mean this is how i get through the dayby playing a game and every game i have played has given me that experince for a time then i move and find another but aslo i like the preset diffcultly from easy monster to harder ones and more and it like being tactful
Just for tickles, thanks for giving Brody his 103rd
In order of importance:
1.PvP
2.Cool looking skills
3.Playing with friends
4.Cool looking gear
More delightful insight.
@Azareal
A convince factor - I never thought about that until now. Like the next person, I enjoy my gaming and I often find myself picking up some titles that I have looked forward to, regardless of its nature. An RPG, an MMORPG, an FPS - if the game was interesting to me, peaked my interest - I'd consider getting it. One problem I had with MMORPGs is I tried to play more then one at one time, at that time I guess I wasn't really good at dividing up my attention.
I can defiantly see where you're coming from on terms of lack of TV entertainment, and trying to catch up with some friends who are truly far away - I mean, its not the same but hey you could always meet up with your long-distance friends in an MMO tavern to catch drinks haha. Being able to play a game with endless content is always a plus as you've mentioned. Usually, always something new each time - which directly ties into the ability to escape.
@rashhero
Haha... 'tune my wife out' - I promise not to let that one slip to her ears.
I hardly know ya - in fact I don't know ya, but regardless... I bid you a congratulations on your first born. A lot of work ahead for ya and that's how games sift through the cracks, but you never know you may get to come back to that gaming world once more as time passes
@ericbelser
Amazing isn't it? Connect to so many and be entertained.